tips for a beginning lucario

[sway15]

hello, I main kirby but while I was playing random characters with a friend I got lucario and he intrigued me, so now I'm planning on using lucario a lot too. I've looked at the stickied guide and from playing around a little I see that lucario seems to be a more defensive character and most of his good moves seem to be aerials. Any tips anyone has to offer, good combos, which moves are the best etc. would be much appreciated, thanks in advance.

 

[Milln]

You should check out the videos in the video topic, particularly the informative ones.

http://smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=158132

Also, look in there for my videos (since I'm not sure if the video topic has been updated with my new ones yet) series about Lucario.

basically what you want to do after absorbing all this knowledge, is play around with him. See how his moves work and get a feel for them. Learning your character is teh very first step. Comes before learning combos and all that.

 

[GDX]

look at the Inner Fire videos. They are pretty informative (props to you infi)

Read the two threads that are around here somewhere...named "Playing Lucario Offensively" and "Playing Lucario Defensively". They both should give you some ideas on his two vast styles

then go in training mode with him and just mess around. You'd be suprised what you can find against a standing still computer. After you got a feel for him alittle bit try to watch videos of both lucarios (offensive and defensive) to see which one youd want to focus on first. I say first, because eventually you want to be great at both styles, just in case. Im personally trying to work on my offensive side right now, since i started with defense

 

[sway15]

found both threads and the inner fire videos were pretty helpful, thank you to both of you

 

[RT]

-learn the range of his moves; by doing so, you can space yourself from your opponents and still manage to hit them without a risk to yourself
-learn to pressure, especially with Aura Sphere; throwing Baby AS will pressure your opponent to either approach, shield, jump, or roll away
-always keep in mind how much damage you have; more damage means more power and knockback for you, but you'll have to start playing more defensively

 

[Hestix]

Reading online and even watching videos are no replacement for practice. It takes cold hard (and very fun) practice to get better with anyone.

 

[Milln]

Correct. Practicing with a friend is great, too. Just playing around in the game and not truly going at it works wonders for discovering things.

 

[sway15]

thanks again everyone, played in training a lot today and against my friend as well. didn't win much as lucario but I could tell I was improving as the day went on. I love how fast his "roll" is. did a lot of throw -> aerial combos and used a lot of uncharged spheres, it was working ok. I missed a lot on his smashes, his range is deceptive and I haven't got a feel for the delay yet. I'll work on using more tilts instead I think, we'll see how it goes. I'll put a video up after another day or two if I can get a decent recording.

 

[Milln]

Also. Lucario has a rather steep learning curve and lots of other characters (Marth, Mario, Link... etc.) don't have to learn as many new things, if anything at all, as you do since you're choosing a brand new character with weird hitboxes and animations. Keep positive and know we'll always be here to help ya on the boards. =D


Edit: Is this an auto-filter or something? >,>
Edit: It has the names correctly in my message details... @@
EditEdit:Ohwait, I get it. April Fool's Day. Haw.

 

[tedward2000]

Another thing i find helpful, is just watch two lvl 9 cpu's dook it out. Especially make one of the cpu's Lucario. the computer will use moves in different ways, adding to your collection of what you know about Lucario.
Boss fights are a good way to get a feeling for large scale fighting, and to work on rolling,timing,and combos.
The sandbag is a personal favorite training spot of mine (online). he only restarts if he goes off screen to the left, right or falls. You can hit him as high as you want, ad he always comes back down, becoming a good aerial training place.

 

[Greenpoe]

This was very important to me:
F-smash has more range than Marth's f-smash. Yeah, that's right...the F-smash range is insane.

 

[Gonzoyo]

I feel that his s hop>dair approach is the most effective. Is this common opinion?

 

[Zink]

is inner fire still recorded with a camcorder? cuz if so I'm not interested :/

 

[Milln]

Inner Fire is never recorded with a camcorder. I use a webcam until I locate a new television, upon which I shall promptly purchase a Gamebridge or a capture card or something.

Until then, it's not like it's unwatchable.

 

[Zink]

Inner Fire is never recorded with a camcorder. I use a webcam until I locate a new television, upon which I shall promptly purchase a Gamebridge or a capture card or something.

Until then, it's not like it's unwatchable.

oho a WEBCAM. :/ none the less. It's harder to see frames when everything is darker than normal.

PS, get a Gamebridge. I have one. They're so amazing, and you can do cool stuffs like use your computer+headphones if your TV has bad sound. Quality is very good for a 30 buck piece of equipment.

 

[Milln]

oho a WEBCAM. :/ none the less. It's harder to see frames when everything is darker than normal.

PS, get a Gamebridge. I have one. They're so amazing, and you can do cool stuffs like use your computer+headphones if your TV has bad sound. Quality is very good for a 30 buck piece of equipment.

But i'm laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazy... order it for me. =\

I'm just gonna wait till I get my new television. My current one is so lawls it only has one sound channel input. >,<

 

[sway15]

Also. Lucario has a rather steep learning curve and lots of other characters (Marth, Mario, Link... etc.) don't have to learn as many new things, if anything at all, as you do since you're choosing a brand new character with weird hitboxes and animations. Keep positive and know we'll always be here to help ya on the boards. =D

lol, thanks. I'm actually starting to win more with lucario (nowhere near kirby but it's getting there) fair, fair, jump to dair has been working well for me as an example of a combo i've been using. my approach tends to either be an uncharged sphere followed by fair or dair depending on if the sphere is shielded or not, or just s-hopped dair.
what is a good low damage combo with lucario though? uthrow hasn't worked as well at really low % for setting up combos, is it because I'm not good enough yet or is there a better "opener" that you guys have found? and thanks for all of the general tips everyone.

 

[tedward2000]

start with a defensive one. Lucario isnt a rush and get good results kind of fighter. If your fighting another defensive person (i.e. nobody is moving, as rare in brawl as that is.) then start charging your aura sphere. As long as you can have it tucked in your pocket, they will be expecting it from early on. So dont use it. They will be on guard for projectiles, but just because they are on guard doesn't mean you have to fire it. What your doing with the air combo is just fine. And for more of a surprise, after a uair+sair+nair, instead of a nair, fire your charged aura sphere. If it hits, it'll send them flying and possibly K.O., if they dodge it, get to the ground first and ready your self. If they ledge grab, stand over them, backwards, charging the aura sphere, guarding it.

 

[Mario & Sonic Guy]

Lucario is not a heavy hitter if it hasn't taken any damage. Do "Training Mode" with Lucario to test out the impact of its attacks. You'll find that they're stronger as Lucario's damage increases.

If I remember right, at 100%+ damage, Lucario's attacks will be powerful enough to KO certain opponents below 150% damage. On a side note, the attack power is maxed out at around 200% damage, and it seems to also be affected by Lucario's win/loss ratio (if winning, attacks are weaker, but they're even stronger when losing).

 

[Nodrak]

Or just get a computer with an s-video port.

 

[Rebonack]

Lucario's damage growth maxes out at about 170% with a x2 multiplier. The second multiplier is x1.2 if he's one stock life behind his opponent and x1.4 if he's two stock behind. Haven't fiddled with it on time matches yet (we hates them).

 

[Nodrak]

Lucario's damage growth maxes out at about 170% with a x2 multiplier. The second multiplier is x1.2 if he's one stock life behind his opponent and x1.4 if he's two stock behind. Haven't fiddled with it on time matches yet (we hates them).

I doubt time will change much, since the winner is decided by number of kills/deaths in a time battle anyway. Coin battles on the other hand...

 

[Rebonack]

I would imagine that it's something like x1.2 if Lucario is 2 points behind the leader and x1.4 if 4 points behind. But like I said I haven't tested it yet.

As for coin, no idea what-so-ever.

Though the x1.2 multiplier is quite nice if your opponent KOs you on your first stock before you manage to take them down. Gives you that extra bite that Lucario normally wouldn't have until 60% or so.

 

[Ilucamy]

Lucarios best attacks are his U-Tilt, Dair, and Double Team, that and his roll is really good.

Fair is good for combos, you can do a A-A->B combo that works pretty well.

Another good one is SH-Fair-Dair. Just play around with him, you'll find stuff on your own.

Also, if you're going for the kill, go with either Dair, F-Smash, or Double Team.

 

[Qinopio]

1. Be very careful with your use of Double Team. This move is VERY punishable. I'd save it for when you're at high damage and you know a hit's coming, so you can get the KO. Be aware than it doesn't activate instantly.

2. Short hop - Fair - Nair - jab - jab - side-B is a nice approach. The Short-hop - fair - nair is very versatile. Fair is weak, has landing lag, but has little lag in the air. Nair has aerial lag but no landing lag, and can KO. Great together.

 

[tedward2000]

Lucario's damage growth maxes out at about 170% with a x2 multiplier. The second multiplier is x1.2 if he's one stock life behind his opponent and x1.4 if he's two stock behind. Haven't fiddled with it on time matches yet (we hates them).

Actually, Lucario's multiplier adds +.5% at every 50% he takes.
50%-.5
100%-1.0
150%-1.5
200%(max)-2.0
It will never exceed x2.0.
what if it kept multiplying? So at 999% he'd have a 9.5% multiplier! A fully charged aura sphere would be like an instant ko, and sense it grows in size each multiplier, x9.5 would make for a massive sphere, not to mention fast and straight.
Of course this is just a fantasy, and thats why his multiplier ends at 200% with x2.0. Other wise, lucario would be way over powered.

 

[sway15]

my internet crapped out at school so I basically disappeared for a while

anyways, thanks for all of the tips and help guys, I've gotten a lot better (having 4 opponents in my dorm helps too). I've been using the a-a->b with great success, it sets up perfectly into fair and from there I can do a whole lot of different things. I do a lot of hit and run, doing short combos things like fair-fair- dair and then back off and charge my sphere as they fly away. it's been pretty effective but I can go on the offensive too which works surprisingly well with lucario. anyways, thanks again.